The Muppets"is kind of like Journey without Steve Perry

[tater1977]

"The Muppets" reintroduces old friends to new audience

http://www.thetelegraph.com/articles/mu ... urney.html

November 23, 2011 8:23 PM


By COREY STULCE



The current revival of "The Muppets" is kind of like Journey without Steve Perry — the songs are still good, but "the voice" isn’t quite the same.

It’s hard to deny that when the world lost Jim Henson in 1990, part of the Muppet magic left us forever. His puppet partner, Frank Oz, also no longer is performing Muppets, so something sounds a little off when Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Rowlf the Dog and others are talking.

Seeing Kermit, Fozzie, Animal and others back — including old-school Muppets such as Uncle Deadly and Bobby Benson and his Baby Band — certainly conjures nostalgia for those who grew up with "The Muppet Show" and the classic "Muppet" movie trilogy. (We’ll ignore later, lesser fare such as "Muppets from Space.")

Many of my peers now have kids old enough to appreciate the low-tech allure of our felt friends, and they plan to introduce them to the nearly forgotten Muppets. For that, I offer one of Kermit’s flipper-flying "Yays!" While this isn’t a perfect flick, it’s certainly a lot of fun and peppy enough to, I hope, hold the attention of tots and their folks.

"The Muppets" co-writers Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller clearly love the Muppets and try to make them relatable — and memorable — again.

That’s the thrust of the story: The Muppets aren’t famous anymore. Their studios are dilapidated and the Muppets themselves have split up.

Enter Segal as Gary and his brother, a new Muppet called Walter. I wanted to dislike Walter — why do we need a new Muppet? But his enthusiasm for all things Muppet is infectious. And he’s downright adorable to boot, especially as we see he and Gary grow up — as Muppet fanatics — in the opening montage.

Walter, Gary and Gary’s longtime gal, Mary (Amy Adams channeling her princess from "Enchanted"), head off to Los Angeles, where they tour the shambles of Muppet Studios and learn that a nasty oil baron, played by Chris Cooper, wants to tear them down because there’s crude underneath.

The trio meets Kermit, now a recluse, and convinces him to put the gang back together in order to stage a show to raise $10 million to save the studios.

But will they pull it off? Will they get a famous guest star? Will Kermit and Piggy — now the plus-size editor of Vogue Paris — reunite?

You can probably guess the answers, but it is fun seeing The Muppets get their groove back.

I loved the running gag of Fozzie joining a Muppet tribute act, The Moopets, including a very butch Miss Poogy — and Foo Fighter Dave Grohl as Animal.

There are songs a-plenty, and a couple of them rise to the occasion, especially Jason Segal and Walter’s duet, "Man or Muppet," where they debate whether or not they are a Muppet of a man or a man of a Muppet, respectively. (Of course, some standby classics such as "Rainbow Connection" really got me nostalgic.)

There are some fun celeb cameos — Jack Black gets put through the wringer — as well as some duds. Selena Gomez? Whoopi Goldberg? More "meh" than "Mah Na Mah Na."

But if YouTube clips have made you long for some fresh Swedish Chef, explosives expert Crazy Harry or if you’ve missed Beaker like "Mi-mi-mi," you will be in hog heaven (sorry, Piggy) with "The Muppets."

[artist4perry]

The Muppets will not be 100% the same without Jim. But what could be Jim? I want to see the new Muppet movie, and I think a resurgence of the old muppet show via TV would be cool. The old shows I have on tape and they still make me laugh. What they need to do is stick to the old formula and keep true to their roots. The worst thing they did once was trying to modern them up. It bombed.

As for the SP reference, the writer must be a LOON. It would be a strange analogy indeed to compare the Muppets to Journey.

[tammy]

The new Muppets movie will be my autistic daughter's FIRST movie experience next week! She is 10 yrs old and watches the old Muppets show on DVDs over and over and over...(yeah, I'm sick of hearing Ethel Merman singing constantly, obviously her favorite!) and now she gets to go to the theater and see them on the big screen. This is possible because the theaters are having a Special Needs showing of the movie and the kids can do all the running, flapping, jumping they want and not get yelled at or thrown out. lol. Our daughter can't sit still for long so this will be good...we will see if she decides to just leave and not even watch the movie, but still it is a big deal for us.

[onmyjrny]

Aw, that's great! I hope it is a great experience for her! Do you think the big screen and speakers will be sensory overload for her?

[tammy]

Aw, that's great! I hope it is a great experience for her! Do you think the big screen and speakers will be sensory overload for her?

I don't think so...she is the "under-reactive" type & likes loud & intense, but we never know exactly what might trigger her meltdowns. (I think it would be sensory overload for me - those theater speakers are always so dang loud...her dad is taking her.)